Some believe that Mulé may be a key part in Apple's quest to make deals with existing cable providers

Apple recently made a new hire that could expedite the arrival of an actual Apple TV and related products.

According to Business Insider, Apple just hired Jean-François Mulé -- an engineering director with a lot of experience in the cable industry. Mulé's specialty is building technologies like WiFi and VoIP into current cable infrastructure.

He worked for a company called CableLabs for six years, where he took on responsibilities such as Development Program Lead for Wireless; Strategy and Development Lead for HD Voice; acting liaison manager with Cable Europe Labs; "driving force" behind IP initiatives, and even an industry spokesperson.

Mulé has said that he is up to something "big" at Apple, but hasn't elaborated on that statement.

Some believe that Mulé may be a key part in Apple's quest to make deals with existing cable providers.

Apple has been trying to reach agreements with content providers and cable companies for years, which is partially the reason for having to shelve the project. For instance, in March 2012, it was reported that Apple approached cable providers wanting them to use its hardware for their set-top boxes -- allowing Apple to create the interface and collaborate with cable companies to manage bandwidth through TV and broadband. However, the cable companies weren't having it.

Do you mean disrupt TV like they recently did with AppleTV ? Oops they actually pulled the AppleTV 6 update silently after it started to brick devices or cause nothing but connectivity problems. Or did you mean disrupt Google Maps by releasing their own half-baked maps that still to this day are giving terrible directions including pointing people to cross active airport runway? Or did you mean disrupt the laptop scene with their Macbook Pro/Air where the batteries just up and quit working? Or the security sector with their "unhackable" fingerprint sensor? I for one sure am glad that they have all their ducks in a row and are able to completely overtake and destroy all competition in all areas in which they have a presence.